Short flight ends in tragedy with 5 dead in Florida

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) --Witnesses said it seemed peoples' skin was melting. Thick columns of black smoke rose from homes shattered by airplane debris and set on fire.

The twin-engine Cessna's highly combustible fuel burned fast and hot and deadly. Just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, a manicured subdivision turned into a disaster scene.

Five people died when a small plane crashed into a neighborhood Tuesday, including the husband of a NASCAR official and a pilot for the auto racing organization. Also killed were two children, a 6 month old and a 4 year old. A 10-year-old boy suffered burns over up to 90 percent of his body.

Eric Domnitz, a food sales worker who lives just down the street from the crash, hurried with a fire extinguisher when he heard a woman scream. He said he discovered a horrific scene.

"It's in my head. The woman was just melting. It looked like her skin was just melting off," he said. "The guy, he was melting. He looked like wax."

The disaster killed the quiet in a well-manicured subdivision about 20 miles outside Orlando, full of two-story gray, tan and beige homes.

"There was a great, great deal of smoke. It was a horrendous fire," said Darrel Presley, deputy Sanford police chief.

Both people in the airplane were killed \u2014 54-year-old Dr. Bruce Kennedy, a Daytona Beach plastic surgeon and husband of race circuit official Lesa France Kennedy, and Michael Klemm, a 56-year-old pilot with NASCAR Aviation.

A mother in one of the homes, 24-year-old Janice Joseph, and her infant son Joseph Woodard, died. Next door, 4-year-old Gabriela Dechat was killed, and her parents were badly burned.

Matt Minnetto, an investigator with the Sanford Fire Department, said rescue crews arrived to a "heavy, dark column of smoke" worsened by airplane fuel. "The plane's in numerous pieces throughout the five or six homes' backyard," he said.

It was another sad day for a sport, and a woman, who have seen their recent share.

Lesa France Kennedy is the daughter of William C. France, the NASCAR chairman who died last month at age 74. Kennedy is president of International Speedway Corporation, which owns or operates 13 of the nation's major motorsports facilities. In addition to losing her father and now her husband, Kennedy recently fell off a bike and broke both her arms.

"It is clear that numerous families were affected by this terrible tragedy and unfortunately several people were deceased or seriously injured," NASCAR said in a written statement. "Our deepest sympathies and prayers are with all of those who were involved in this tragic accident and their families."

It's not the first aviation tragedy for NASCAR. In 2004, a plane owned by one of its most successful teams, Hendrick Motorsports, crashed on its way to a race, killing all 10 people aboard. Two years earlier, NASCAR team owner Jack Roush was critically injured in a small plane crash near Talladega. And in 1993, two NASCAR drivers, Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki, were killed in separate air crashes.

The plane Tuesday was traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland when the pilot declared smoke in the cockpit. It was not entirely clear who was flying the plane; NASCAR said it was Kennedy, but investigators said earlier Tuesday it was Klemm.

They tried to land at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, but crashed just north, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

The trip was supposed to be a quick 100 miles. Witnesses saw the plane pivot and sway, disappearing past a treeline.

Federal officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive and begin an investigation.

Lou-Ann Cappola, a schoolteacher who lives about a block away from the crash site, said residents of the subdivision are accustomed to noise from a nearby railyard. She didn't think twice of it when she heard the crash.

"I thought the trains were banging and making noise," she said. "I was on the porch and looked up and saw smoke \u2014 black, black smoke. At that point, all the sirens were coming."

The plane came to rest among several houses in a broken mess, just a few miles from the airport.